With COVID-19 cases rising across Interior Health, the province is making masks mandatory across the region, limiting gathering sizes indoors and outdoors.

Outdoor gatherings are limited to 50 people, and indoor gatherings are limited to the size of someone’s household plus five people. The mask mandate will affect all places indoors. High-intensity fitness classes will also be banned starting tonight.

The changes were announced at 2:30 p.m. by Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, who said those new rules will come into effect at midnight tonight.

Non-essential travel to and from Interior Health is also being discouraged by health officials, regardless of someone’s vaccine status, meaning people are being told not to vacation to the Interior.

Henry explained these orders have already been in place for several weeks for the Central Okanagan Local Health Area, after an outbreak of COVID-19 was declared there last month.

Henry acknowledged this is an added challenge for people in the Interior, pointing out residents have been hampered by wildfire smoke, the affects of wildfires through evacuation orders and alerts, and extreme heat for most of the summer.

She added the best way to curb case counts from rising significantly is to get vaccinated against COVID-19. As of Thursday, more than 83 per cent of people 12 and older in B.C. had received a first vaccine dose and more than 74 per cent of those people are fully vaccinated. Many parts of the Interior, though, have vaccination rates slightly below the provincial average.

Health Minister Adrian Dix said province-wide, rates of vaccinations are similar for people aged 50 and older, but is lower for people under 50 years old in many parts of the Interior.

More to come.